Julie's "Moby Dick" Moment

Julie's "Moby Dick" Moment

Julie Utting went fishing on her own and caught her 60th Marlin and she is in her 60's!  Another Kiwi Grandmother with a never say die attitude.  Good on you Julie!












In Julie's words:
It was a beautiful day and a great forecast but Barry announced he was driving some friends to Opua to pick up a boat, so rather than sit in a hot vehicle all day I announced I was going marlin fishing by myself.  That was met with disbelief, and I was told I was a stupid old biddy, it would be too hard!  That’s a big challenge to me. 

I headed off out of the marina at 9am and set a course for the hundred metre mark off Stevies and when I arrived, set the lures.  I started with towing 4 but the pattern didn’t look right so I put the 5th one out on the shotgun, figuring when the time came to clear the gear I would manage somehow. I also put the skippy lure out, which now gave me 5 lines to clear,(the 6th one would have the fish on) A skippy jumped on the bungy at 150 metres and was promptly dispatched to the tuna tubes.  At least I could say I had caught something!

I hung around the 120 to 130 metre mark with some of the other boats, then decided they weren’t getting hits so I started heading for the 200 metre mark.  By this time I was getting up by Bergens. The water was a beautiful blue colour but the temperature only went up to 18.4 and ideally over 20 degrees is preferable for marlin fishing.  I was talking on the phone to Barry and watching the lures when a marlin struck on the second lure on the port side of the boat.  I told Barry I had a strike and threw the phone down and raced downstairs.  I let the marlin run while still going ahead on pilot and raced round clearing the gear. 

The two lines on the riggers were just wound up to the leaders, I figured I could sort them later. I threw on my stand up gear, took the boat off pilot and grabbed the rod.  By this time the fish had a fair bit of line out so I knew I would have my work cut out.  Normally I play my fish in the chair so the stand up gear was a novelty for me.  We have cockpit controls so that made it easier, I stayed on the starboard side by them the whole time and played the fish off that corner, juggling winding and the backing and maneuvering the boat at the same time.  A lot like a one armed paperhanger! 

About half an hour of puffing and struggling the fish came up to the leader.  We run windons, so I wound the leader on to the rod tip but then discovered the line was too high for me to reach at the top of the rod.  (Our rods are not made for standup) I backed over to the far side of the cockpit and grabbed the tuna gaff to reach up and grab the leader, then put the rod in the rod holder. All was going good at that point except the fish kept trying to run forward so there was a fair bit of maneuvering going on as well. I finally grabbed the bill and walked it round to the back transom door.  I had taken the door out just previously with much difficulty.

The plan was to just slide the fish into the cockpit like our deckhand Glen Cowan does with ease.  That didn’t happen quite like I planned.  I was stuffed and I discovered I couldn’t lift it.  It was only holding by the hook still so I grabbed a rope from beside me and tried to pass a loop over the head.  That didn’t work either, so I had to let the fish go and grab the gaff.  Once that was in I had another go at pulling the fish in but there was no way I could lift it any further than the head. 

I called on channel 62 for someone to come and help and gave my co-ordinates.  The offers came from all over but the closest was a White pointer boat named Double Time with two guys on board.  The sea had come up a bit by this time so it was too hard to get the boats close, so the guys dived in and swam over.. 

They both pulled the fish on the boat, said congratulations and swam off back to their boat.  If they read this, please phone me, I owe you a big shout!  I phoned Barry and told him the fish was on board.  He was waiting at the weigh station along with a lot of other friends when I arrived in. 

The fish weighed 90.4 kg, not a big marlin, I have caught 225Kg, but by myself it wouldn’t have need to be any bigger.  Probably the only time ever I have wanted a small stripey instead of a big Blue! Anyway that was my 60th marlin, so it was fitting.  Been there, done that, but don’t think I will try it again!!!